The prospects for Ukraine signing a key Euro-integration deal this month look remote as the country's business tycoons suggest delaying the move by at least a year and parliament has stalled a vote that could free jailed ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko.

Kiev may sign the EU Association Agreement, a free trade
agreement that paves the way for eventual membership in the
union, at the EU's Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius on
November 28-29. However it faced strong resistance from Russia, which wants Ukraine to be
part of the Moscow-led Customs Union along with Belarus and
Kazakhstan. Ukrainians themselves are also split in their opinion
over their country’s strategic course.

The split was underlined at a meeting of leaders from Ukraine’s
major industries and unions with President Viktor Yanukovych. At
the closed-door session they voiced their concern that Ukraine’s
battered economy is not ready to be opened up to its strong
Western neighbor.

“If it is possible, let’s postpone the signing [of the
Association Agreement] by a year. Give us a chance to prepare
more, to buy equipment. This is not only my request, it’s a
request from industrialists,” Valentin Landyk, President of the
Nord Group holding said at the Tuesday meeting as cited in a
statement released by the president’s office.

The business captains asked the government to take several
measures, which would raise the competitiveness of the Ukrainian
economy before integrating with the EU, Kommersant Ukraine
business daily reports. Those included boosting domestic demand,
making credit cheaper, lowering taxes and normalizing trade
relation with the Customs Union members.

Yanukovych did not comment on the proposition to delay signing of
the trade deal, but ordered his government to review the
concerns. Both the president and Ukraine’s ruling Party of
Regions insist that Ukraine’s course for European integration is
firm and that Kiev has every intention of signing the agreement.

“I believe we have all the preconditions for a positive result
[at the summit],” Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara reiterated
on Wednesday, adding that only political issues need to be
settled.

The intention however saw another setback on Wednesday when the
Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, postponed a vote on a
bill, which would allow former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko,
who is serving a prison term now, to go to Germany for treatment
of back pain. The delay until Tuesday next week was caused by the
failure of a working group preparing the bill to find a
compromise alternative.

The European Union considers Tymoshenko, sentenced to seven years
for overstepping her authority during her term in office, a
political prisoner. Releasing her is one of major conditions for
Ukraine to be granted a free trade deal.

The bill would allow a long-term transfer of Tymoshenko outside
of Ukraine due to health reasons, which would constitute a de
facto release.

The ruling party accused opposition parties of derailing the
work, saying they bombarded the working groups with amendments
and gave them no time to review them.

“There is a growing suspicion that you’ve been playing a show
for the voters, while imagining yourselves candidates at the next
presidential election, and you don’t even intend to solve the
Tymoshenko issue,” Regions’ parliamentary faction leader
Aleksandr Efremov lashed out.

“You’ve been deceiving European representatives while trying
to frame the Ukrainian authorities,” he added in a reference
to this week’s visit of a European Parliament observer mission to
review the preparation for the Vilnius summit.

Meanwhile some opposition members are accusing Yanukovych of
spinning the public opinion for an eventual failure to sign the
deal. Tymoshenko said the president “has in the last weeks
already been kicking the Association Agreement to death” in a
statement. And opposition leader Arseny Yatsenyuk has called for
an investigation over whether the president committed treason by
traveling to Russia last weekend for a meeting with Russia’s
President Vladimir Putin.

"Right from the start Yanukovych did not want to sign anything
with the European Union," Tymoshenko ally Yatsenyuk wrote
bitterly on Twitter. "He played and outplayed even
himself."